Hi All,

For Sale: Pentax 6x7 SMC-Tak 200mm f/4 lens: There have been three 200/4s for the P6x7, this is the 'middle' one (the second in this review): link

Roughly the equivalent of a 100mm lens in 35mm terms.

Lens is in good condition for it's age (it could be from 1971), slight dust, no fungus, snappy aperture and no serious marks. Supplied with the original bayonet front lens cap (67mm) and rear cap.

£85 posted to the UK.

Thanks for looking.

John.

@matt_koz - I've sent you a PM.

Interest shown in the MX Winder - reserved.

For sale, prices shown include UK postage (happy to bundle and adjust accordingly). Lenses have slight dust but no fungus inside them:

1) Pentax MEII Winder (boxed with instructions): Good condition, £25

2) Pentax MX winder (intact battery door with instructions): Works but the foam holding the batteries in place has disintegrated into a gooey mess: £25

3) Pentax-M 35mm f/2.8 lens (sticky aperture): The aperture blades are sticky (a common problem with this lens), maybe it could be cleaned? : £20

4) Pentax SFX(n) ever ready case (tatty): I didn't even know they made these until an SFX arrived in it: £10

5) SFX(n) AA Battery grip: The real deal (not mistaken for the 2CR5 grip): £25

6) Pentax Cable Switch F (boxed): Locking electronic cable release for the SFX/SF7, Z series and some of the MZ series (maybe also fits 645N(ii)?), about two feet long: £20

7) Pentax F 70-210 f/4-5.6 (non-SMC, AF problem): When auto-focussing on my K-5, the focus rings sticks half-way through it's travel and the camera thinks it's hit the end-stop and refuses to drive it further. Manually focusing is OK - treat it as a manual focus KA lens: £20

Pentax FA 28-80 F/3.5-4.7 Power zoom lens (PZ A/S mode switch broken, tatty): Unfairly graded in the PentaxForums lens reviews IMHO (I think they're better than the later 'silver' FA versions). Zoom ring gives the impression of being gritty but they were all like that when new due to the PZ mechanism. Basic PZ function works on my K-5 (later cameras may vary): £20

Thanks for looking.

John.

My take on it is, like most areas of photography, you get out of it what you put in. The web is full of fantastic shots from various lenses, but you don't always appreciate the effort they've required from the photographer.

A 600mm on APS-C is a 900mm equivalent - this is a huge lens, even framing birds in flight will be difficult. Shutter speeds would need to be very high and focussing will always be difficult. Either way it won't fit a Pentax body.

I've got two bodies (AF works on one) and two lenses (AF used to work on both but ones stopped working). Haven't used them in anger (the camera battery door is almost impossible to open) but seeing the AF drive the lens to perfect focus on the spit-image is a bit eerie - even if it is a bit slow.

Hi Gareth,

The shots of the Reds are very good (very dramatic framing works very well). The Spitfire & Hurricane shots have the titles the wrong way round and more blur on the props would be preferable. You need to be below 1/250th to blur props (depends on the aircraft). You've nailed the exposure (which is often very difficult with small & dark subjects against the sky.

Spits & Hurricanes are very small aircraft and it's difficult to fill the frame at typical air display distances without something around 400mm or longer.

John.

If the spec above is correct it's a ridiculous lens (no wonder it's taken so long to develop it). Standard primes are supposed to be most useful by being small & lightweight. If I were Zeiss, I'd put the ZK lenses back into production pronto!

At least there's no danger of the F & FA 50s losing value as a result...

I must one of the very few who use good quality UV or Skylight filters over lenses (not that I've ever encountered any issues with sharpness). Cleaning a filter is much safer than repeatedly cleaning the front element - I've lost count of the number of fingerprints end up on my filters (maybe I'm a bit clumsy).

As for protecting the lens against impact - a filter won't do that very well - but then I try not to bash my lenses on anything. Lens hoods are great (if they fit properly) but don't work very well if you're using slot-in filters with adapter rings.

The only lenses I don't cover are my medium format one which often have huge filter threads (very expensive for good quality filters). The lenses are all used and have often suffered minor damage to the front elements with past owners anyway.

The built-in SD card readers of some computers are not always SDHD or SDXC compatible, files may load at first but as the card fills up, the later images may require a different card reader (I've had this problem before - having to buy an external SDHC reader). An external card reader may be worth trying, as would connecting the camera to the computer by US (if you haven't already tried this).

I've been looking seriously at the K-1 for a while, I have a good set of FA primes ready & waiting, I've even held it a couple of times, but it hasn't sung to me like all my other Pentax's have. The problem is the very high cost for a 35mm SLR and a lack of transparency on pricing*. I've shot a huge variety of medium format film gear, and I feel short-changed spending that much on a K-1 after experiencing medium format. My P6x7 outfit (2 bodies & 5 lenses) has cost similar to K-1 money, there's no question for me, the P6x7 wins every time.

The prices of some of the lenses (even 'bread n butter' types like the 28-105) is simply eye-watering - I'm sure it's good kit, but I'd easily prefer a used FA PZ 28-105 for a tenth the price. I can easily live with screen-drive AF and any optical differences are likely to be hard to spot. If you're new to Pentax and wanting a 'basic' kit of K-1, grip & 28-105 you're looking around the £2500 mark - why would you even contemplate switching from CaNikon?

* As has been mentioned in this thread, all prices seem to be the same and all of a sudden, it's £100 cheaper (bad luck if you bought one the day before). The Special Edition K-1 & grip (supposedly on limited supply) was for a long period, cheaper than the standard one with a grip (perhaps the fact it looked like an MZ-5n put people off).